For several years he had been happy in his peaceful retirement.

But not wealth, nor even integrity and piety, can bar the door of the lofty mansion against the Destroyer of the race.
His wife died of an hereditary disease, which gave no indication of its presence till she had passed her thirtieth year.

Two years later, his daughter, just blooming into maturity, followed her mother down to the silent tomb, stricken in her freshness and beauty by the same insidious malady.
The husband and father was left desolate.

His purest and fondest hopes were blighted; but, while he was submissive to the will of the Father, who doeth all things well, he became gloomy and sad.

He was not seen to smile for a year after the death of his daughter, and it was three years before he had recovered even the outward semblance of his former cheerfulness.